Reds try to rebound in series with Marlins

Baseball Betting Lines

08/13/2010 - (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The Cincinnati Reds return to the field today with the same on-field personnel - but a little lighter in the wallets - when they open a three-game home series with the visiting Florida Marlins at Great American Ball Park.

The Reds tumbled from first place in the National League's Central Division after being the victim of a three-game sweep by the St. Louis Cardinals in a series that ended Wednesday.

The teams engaged in fisticuffs during an incident in Tuesday's game, which resulted in a seven-game suspension for starting pitcher Johnny Cueto and a two-game penalty for manager Dusty Baker. Assuming he doesn't appeal the suspension, Cueto will miss a scheduled start on Sunday.

The two men were also fined undisclosed amounts for their roles in the fracas, as were Reds second baseman Brandon Phillips and relief pitcher Russ Springer.

In Wednesday's finale, Colby Rasmus belted a grand slam in support of Adam Wainwright's seven scoreless innings as St. Louis downed Cincinnati, 6-1.

Reds starter Bronson Arroyo (12-7) lasted five innings, giving up four runs on six hits while walking three and striking out two for Cincinnati, which was last swept in a three-game series from June 18-20 in Seattle.

Cincinnati sends right-hander Edinson Volquez to the mound tonight for his sixth start of 2010. The 27-year-old missed most of last season and the first half of this year after undergoing ligament replacement surgery in his right elbow.

He's won twice, lost once and picked up two no-decisions in five subsequent starts, allowing a combined 23 hits and 13 runs in 23 2/3 innings.

Volquez has won all three career starts against the Marlins while posting a 1.80 earned run average in 20 innings.

Florida righty Josh Johnson is also unbeaten in three lifetime meetings with the Reds, winning twice while compiling a 1.65 ERA in 16 1/3 innings. He handed Cincinnati a 10-2 loss on April 15 in Miami after allowing five hits and a single run in six innings.

The 6-foot-7, 249-pounder was 10-3 after a 2-0 defeat of Washington on July 17, but is winless in four starts since while allowing 25 hits and 11 runs in 27 innings.

Johnson is 3-2 in nine road starts in 2010.

Ricky Nolasco pitched six-plus shutout innings for Florida on Thursday to win his sixth straight road start, and the Marlins recorded a three-game sweep of the Washington Nationals with a 5-0 rain-soaked victory.

Nolasco (13-8) won for the fourth time in five starts and the eighth time in 10 outings for the Marlins, who matched a season-high with their fourth straight win. The righty allowed six hits and a walk while fanning eight for Florida.

The game took 5 hours and 18 minutes to complete after accounting for a 1 hour, 57 minute rain delay.

Marlins rookie Mike Stanton continued to swing the hot bat, homering for the second consecutive game and driving in two runs. In the three-game series, the rookie went 8-for-11 with six RBI and three walks.

These teams split a four-game set in Miami from April 12-15, as well as four meetings held at Great American Ball Park last season. The Reds have gone 9-2 against the Marlins at home since 2007, however.

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FOOTBALL TRASH TALK

NFL Football Trash Talk

Trash talk has a place in every competitive endeavor (except baseball; those stirrup-wearers are too busy chewing on their sunflower seeds and their supplements to worry about what their opponents are doing).

Fantasy sports is no exception. Any intelligent discussion of the subject would probably start with a thesis statement or a definition of terms. Thankfully, this wont be an intelligent discussion.

Let me just say that I am happy to take a place in this space alongside my talented colleagues, even our commissioner. (You should see how she bleats like a demented paper boy about league fees on our fantasy site).

Trash talking, I would argue, is primarily about amusing your friends, their sheeplike demeanors and sloping foreheads notwithstanding. The best place I have found for football trash talking is at www.SportsAlarm.com.

Beyond the entertainment factor, though, I would recognize that the sophomoric ritual has one advantage, when properly applied. It magnifies your fantasy triumphs and mitigates your fantasy failures by transforming the eventual point total into an afterthought. Winning makes it seem like your opponent really is a truss-owning, lapel-pin-wearing nitwit. And in defeat, trash talk can be the air bag to break the fall from your hyperbolic heights. The plug-necked yahoos on your team, you can say, will be sacking groceries by the end of the season.

The best trash talk, in my view, is layered and nuanced. And it doesnt focus only on your opponents team. It picks apart your opponent. The idea is to create a shock-and-awe-scale blizzard of nonsense, and the goal is to make your opponent drop his hands from his keyboard in exasperation.

What team does your opponent root for? Accuse a Giants fan of having a Joe Namath pillowcase. Wheres your opponent from? Give a look of concern no matter his reply, then say, I'll try to type slower for you next time. Is your opponent into politics? Label everyone a tax-and-spend corporate shill.

Cap all that with a liberal application of irrelevance. For instance, dont just conclude by saying your opponent is a twerp who drafts like my grandmother. Say that your opponent is a sweater-wearing, eyebrow-plucking twerp who drafts his team about as well as Zsa Zsa Gabor gave acceptance speeches at the Oscars. By the time your foe makes sense of that, his starting running back will have had puppies.

But what about you? Hmm? Recall a memorable slam? Have a tried-and-true technique? Know someone who seems impervious to insult? Take a moment and tells us about it. Put together some (fit-for-publication) thoughts. You wont be too busy returning phone messages from your friends, Im sure, to reply.

In addition to the trash talking, the Sports Alarm has a huge gallery of high resolution pictures of beautiful women and models in bikinis. The most popular models are: Lindsay Lohan, Carrie Underwood, Alessandra Ambrosio, and Paris Hilton.